“We have fairs in – do you have wristband days here? That’s the favorite day for my kids because wristband day you can buy a wristband and ride on all the rides with just one wristband for the whole day. So it’s just a suggestion from a Wisconsinite to a neighboring Iowan – have wristband day, alright? Your kids will love it.

“You know, I heard that President Obama is starting his bus tour today, and I heard that he wasn’t going to come to the Iowa state fair.

[Crowd jeers]

“I think it’s become so – you know what?

[Crowd talking loudly]

“It’s funny. It’s funny because Iowans and Wisconsinites, we like to be respectful of one another and peaceful with one another and listen to each other. These ladies must not be from Iowa or Wisconsin.

[Woman escorted out by security]

“Like I said, she must not be from Iowa.

“So – hey, all right!

“My guess is – my guess is the reason President Obama isn’t making it here from Council Bluffs because he only knows left turns.

“You know, but as you see the President come through on his bus tour, you might ask him the same question that I’m getting asked from people all around America and that is ‘Where are the jobs, Mr. President?’

“Now, one thing we’ve got to get straight – one thing we got to get straight is we’re not growing this economy like we need to. We’re not creating jobs like we can in America.

“And that is why Mitt Romney and I have a plan for a stronger middle-class to get this country back on track, get this country growing jobs again, and get us back on the path to prosperity this country.

“There are 5 things that we’re going to do right away that are designed to create 12 million jobs.

“Number one, we have energy in this country. Let’s use that energy in this country. Everything – renewables, biomass, nuclear. And you know what? Oil and gas. It’s here, let’s get it, let’s not keep buying from other countries.

“We also need our workers to have skills so they can compete and thrive and survive in this 21st century economy.

“You know what we also need to do? We need to stop spending money we don’t have.

“President Obama has given us 4 years of trillion dollar plus deficits. He is making matters worse and he is spending our children into a diminished future.

“We don’t have to stand for that. We’re not going to stand for that. And on Nov. 6th, we’re going to change that.

“We also need to have free and fair trade so we can make more things in Iowa, make more things here, sell them overseas. 97% of the world’s consumers are out of this country. We need to grow and make things in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, the Midwest. If we do that, we’ll create jobs.

“You know what? One more thing. One of the great things about Mitt Romney is that this is a man who actually knows how to create jobs. This is a man who in his life has created jobs, started small businesses, turned around failing businesses – that’s the kind of leadership and experience we want to have in the White House. This is a man who has real life experiences who knows that if you have a small business, you did build that small business.

“We need to re-build and re-energize and revitalize our small businesses of the country – that’s where our jobs come from.

“President Obama is telling American successful small businesses that he wants their top tax rate to go as high as 44%.

“The Canadians just lowered their tax rates to all of their businesses in January to 15%.

“How on earth are our successful small businesses going to compete like when we have other countries lowering their tax rates like that?

“We need to make sure we get rid of the loopholes, get rid of the deductions, lower everybody’s tax rates so our businesses can survive and not keep taxing small businesses and spending their money in Washington.

[Crowd chanting USA]

“That’s right. That’s right. Thank you.

“Another thing. We have people who are hurting in this country. People are hurting because we don’t have jobs. Families are hurting because their living paycheck to paycheck and the paychecks aren’t being stretched as far as they used to.

“This is the worst economic recovery – if you want to call it that – in 70 years.

“We have the largest deficits and the biggest government since World War II.

“One out of 6 Americans are living in poverty today.

“What we have to do, what we need to do, is to have the kind of policies that get people from welfare back to work into lives of self-sufficiency and dignity.

“What is so disturbing about President Obama’s most recent action is he took a reform that was bipartisan – signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1996 we call welfare reform. Welfare reform was one of the most successful ideas, bipartisan policies in 20 years. Because it said if you’re going to receive welfare benefits, you have to go work or get ready for work or get job training so you get back on your feet.

“You see, we believe in a safety net. We believe in a safety net that is there for people who cannot help themselves, that is there to help people who are down on their luck so that they can get back on their feet, and that work requirements in welfare reform did more to help the poor, did more to reduce child poverty than any reform we’ve seen in a generation.

“And President Barack Obama just passed a rule waiving those work requirements, saying no longer do states actually have to have work requirements and people are going to receive welfare. That’s going to send us to the wrong direction. That’s the wrong way to go.

“We want to give people a hands up not handouts.

“And so what you will see from us is this: We owe you a choice. You are our fellow citizens, and what we want to do is give you the choice so you can decide what kind of country you want to have, what kind of people do you want us to be.

“We want America to be that land of the free, that opportunities society with a safety net, a society of upper mobility, a society of people reaching their potential, a society of people making the most of their lives.

“We don’t want a welfare state. We don’t want a debt crisis. We don’t want to prolong this recession. We don’t want to keep this path of household incomes going down $4,000. We want to turn this thing around.

“And with Mitt Romney – we’re used to this in Wisconsin, oh yea. And with Mitt Romney, we have a leader who’s proven he knows how to create jobs.

“We have a leader when his country needed him changed his life, moved to Salt Lake City, and saved the Olympics and made us proud.

“We have a leader who when he was Governor of Massachusetts balanced the budget without raising taxes, lowered unemployment, and increased household incomes, increased take-home pay.

“Our job is to grow the economy, get people back to work, and help people have bigger paychecks and have more take-home pay. This can be done. We can turn this around. We can get this economy growing.

“And you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to do this in Iowa. We’re going to do this all around the country. We’re going to do it everywhere we can go because we’re going to get this country back. And Nov. 6th is the date we’re going to do that!

[Applause]

“I feel such kindred spirits here. I live just an hour and a half from Dubuque. It’s the place where my grandfather went to Loras. Clinton, Iowa is where my mother-in-law is from, where all her family are. We are united as upper Midwesterners.

“We are people who – yes, some of you out here may be Viking or Bears fans; I’m not going to hold that against you. I see a few Packer hats here. But you know what it is at the end of the day? We are Americans.

[Applause]

“America is special. America is the only country founded on an idea, and that’s the big deal here, that’s the big difference here. What’s unique about America is that we recognize the point, the fact, the essential principles that our founders established that our veterans fought for: Our rights – they come from nature and God, not from government.

[Applause]

“That’s who we are. That’s what we believe. And if we re-apply those founding principles, we’ll get our country back on track. Help us win this thing. Help us bring this state to the Mitt Romney column. Do this because we will look back at this moment and time we saved it for our kids, our grandkids.